FINANCIAL DISSERVICES? - Banco Santander, a Spanish commercial bank and financial services company, and other defendants were hit with a civil RICO lawsuit Sunday in California Northern District Court. The suit, filed by attorney Andrew G. Watters on behalf of Filomeno Medina and Arlene Valdefiera, contends that a group of individuals are using a retired attorney’s information to scam plaintiffs into sending fees to Mexico for a timeshare in Cancun, Mexico. The suit further contends that Banco Santander and other defendants have knowledge of the ongoing scam and have failed to stop it. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 3:22-cv-01762, Medina et al v. Newfold Digital, Inc. et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.
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NOT SO FAST - For many international law firms, the decision to pull out of Russia was a difficult one. Now comes the really hard part. One employment partner for a U.S. firm in London told Law.com International’s Jack Womack they believe firms face a monumental challenge in figuring out what to do with their people. While lawyers in either Moscow or St. Petersburg who are overseas citizens or working there on secondment will most likely be relocated elsewhere, the partner said there is a trickier issue when it comes to staff on the ground who are Russian. “Some firms will relocate their personnel to other regions, and some won’t. For the lawyers [in Russia] who don’t get relocated, the two fundamental questions for firms are—what do you pay them, and how do you pay them?” Another London-based employment head said it’s remarkable how quickly international firms have withdrawn from Russia, given that the conflict in Ukraine is not even a month old: “When the dust starts to settle, we might see firms start to go back in. If there is a ceasefire and a more permanent kind of peace, we may see the business world moving relatively quickly back to where it was. Firms might regret being so emphatic right now—and look to revisit their decisions.”
